About

With our world becoming more and more digital (thank-you, COVID), we decided to create this podcast to extend online discussions about women writers and women’s writing.

Our team is based at MacEwan University and the University of Calgary, on the traditional territories of many Indigenous Peoples, such as the Métis Nation of Alberta, the Siksika, Piikani, and Kainai First Nations, the Tsuut’ina First Nation, and the Nehiyaw (Cree), Denesuliné (Dene), and Stoney Nakoda (including the Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Wesley First Nations).

This experiment in podcasting includes an open peer-review process: our episodes are under review by literary and digital humanities scholars, using guidelines inspired by those of the Amplify Podcast Network.

Orlando: A Podcast is supported by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, University of Calgary, and MacEwan University.

Hannah Anderson (research support)

is a PhD student in English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Calgary.  She researches the representation of female athletes in sports literature, and her dissertation will be a novel on the impact of the Olympic Underdog trope on developmental athletes.  She has worked as a transcriber and encoder on projects including Digital Dinah Craik and Mapping Victorian Literary Sociability.

Gabrielle Baker (website and social media lead)

is an English student at MacEwan University. She is an aspiring writer interested in feminist literature and the role media plays in the feminist movement.

Karen Bourrier (co-host and co-creator)

focuses on Victorian literature, women’s writing, and the digital humanities in her research and teaching at the University of Calgary. Most recently, she is the author of Victorian Bestseller: The Life of Dinah Craik (U Michigan P, 2019).

Kathryn Holland (co-host and co-creator)

is Associate Director of the Orlando Project and teaches at MacEwan University. Her interests include queer feminist writing of the modernist period and digital approaches to literary history. She has published in journals and collections including Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature and Bodies of Information: Intersectional Feminism and Digital Humanities (U of Minnesota P, 2018). Her work is featured in this MacEwan University piece, “English instructor hosts new podcast on women’s writing.”

Christie Hurrell (technical lead and co-creator)

is the Director of Lab NEXT in Libraries and Cultural Resources at the University of Calgary. Her role involves advancing digital research initiatives and partnerships, working on scholarly communication and open education initiatives, and coordinating Lab NEXT, the library’s digital scholarship collaboration space and makerspace. Her research and practice stem from her interest in new ways of sharing and tracking the impact of research.

Jessica Khuu (series producer)

 recently completed her Honours B.A. in English at the University of Calgary, pursuing her interests in the presence of architectural philosophy, urban studies, and feminist postcolonial storytelling in literary studies. She enjoys hiking, trying new restaurants, creative writing, and smothering dogs with love. She is featured in this University of Calgary piece: “The power of speaking rather than reading and writing stories”

Darian Mahmi (research support)

recently completed her B.A. (Psychology and Gender Studies/Sociology) at MacEwan University, where she was a member of its varsity women’s basketball team. Her research interests include feminist literature, women’s sexual health, human sexuality, and clinical/counseling psychology mindfulness practices. She is interviewed in this “Student Snapshot: Helping build a podcast on feminist literature.”